[Anonymous]

[NewBAexec]

I heard BA is planning to renew their old 737 fleet at Gatwick by the end of 2013. Rumours have it that they might be replaced by Airbus 319/320 or Boeing 737 NG or Bombardier CRJ’s.

I personally do like flying on the Airbus, and also on the CRJ’s which Lufthansa Cityline operates and they are very stylish, business jet-like planes.

About time these 737s retire from service. I wonder what BA will go for.

[BA319131]

I don’t think these are going anywhere for a while, they are fully paid for and are currently being refurbished with the ‘newish’ seats/side panels from the 757 fleet.

[RichHI1]

I hope BA buy some 737 NG’s. I would choose over minibuses or RJ’s every time.

[VintageKrug]

If indeed BA retains a shorthaul fleet at Gatwick (and given the LoCo competition on most routes, and newly minted oneworld membership of AirBerlin, not to mention closer ties with FlyBe which is 15% owned by BA) I would put airbus as the front runner for any fleet renewal.

I much prefer flying on airbus aircraft shorthaul.

But I don’t think these 737s will be phased imminently; though they are quite old, aircraft maintained from new by the excellent people at BA Engineering are very robust and should run for a handful of years yet; nice to see the interiors will be getting some minor TLC, as some of them are a little off their game right now.

[NewBAexec]

Well I have spoken to the crew on a 737 flight recently and they confirmed that the 737s are definitely going to be phased out soon and a new fleet introduced. They mentioned that the business plan has started and management at Gatwick are already looking into the new fleet i.e what aircraft to buy.

So the 737s are definitely going and not refurbished to stay as mentioned by “BA319131”. They have not been refurbished, they have just acquired more rows with the extra seats coming from the 757s.

[Tom Otley]

In preparation for an LGW – AMS flight next week, I have been looking at the B737-400 pages on seatplans.com.

On the aircraft page (written two years ago) we had “BA plans to phase out these aircraft”.

The prediction proved incorrect and has now been removed.

http://www.seatplans.com/airlines/british-airways/seatplans/B-737

[NewBAexec]

And may I just add, replacing some old 737 seats and adding extra rows by old 757 seats is not really “refurbishing”, is it?!

The so-called Club Europe seats are still very old, the panels, overhead lockers, carpet and lavatories are still the same. Once all of these have changed then we can say that they have refurbished their 737 fleet.

[RichHI1]

From past exposure to the Gatwick operation, which was not at all bad, the fleet seems to be cascaded from Heathrow. WIll the new fleet for Gatwick ops be a cascade of older Heathrow minibuses or is the plan to acquire new aircraft?

[NewBAexec]

Well if they are looking into buying a new fleet, obviously it is not going to be old LHR aircrafts.

[RichHI1]

But I was unclear whether the new fleet would go direct to Gatwick or follow past practice and go to LHR with the older equipment cascaded.

[BA319131]

NewBAexec, don’t expect gossip from crew to be all that credible.

Apologies if you don’t count replacing the seats and side walls with newer ones to be some kind of refurbishment, that’s what we call it in my business.

IIRC there was nothing in the last BA AGM relating to a new Gatwick fleet.

I would expect Airbus models as and when the 734 fleet is replaced, so much roomier than the 737.

[craigwatson]

I would put money on it be 737-8/9, as the cost of retraining for flight crews to the bus would be astronomical, as well as half the crew from heathrow airbus ops would have to change to gatwick for an indefinate period, as the 737 crews got experience on the bus.

[NewBAexec]

@BA319131

I fly on these 737s quite often and the side walls have not been replaced. The only change was replacing half of the cabin’s old 737 seats with the 757 seats.
Club still has the old seats up to the overwing exits with some of the headrest hanging loose. The same old side walls, panels, overhead lockers, curtains, carpets and toilets!

So I’m not sure what kind of business you’re running, but it must be looking pretty tired if this is what you call refurbishment!

As for gossips from crew, they are the ones working in the company so presumably would be the first people to know what is actually happening in their work place, i.e aircrafts!
BA has just announced their business plan which includes a new fleet for LGW to replace the 737s.

Well, watch this space!

[BA319131]

I fly on these 737s quite often and the side walls have not been replaced

– Sorry the side walls have not been replaced, I was told this was going to happen , apologies again this has not happened.

Club still has the old seats up to the overwing exits with some of the headrest hanging loose. The same old side walls, panels, overhead lockers, curtains, carpets and toilets!

So I’m not sure what kind of business you’re running, but it must be looking pretty tired if this is what you call refurbishment!

– Apologies if you miss read my post, I understood the seating and side walls were being replaced, ie refurbished, I made no comment to carpet etc etc. As to my job, Property & Facilities, I am the only major in my market expanding and investing in our current property portfolio, so I take your comment as a bit of an insult to be honest.

This used to be a friendly forum………

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